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MAC ANNOUNCES 2014 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Cleveland, Ohio - The Mid-American Conference announced the 2014 football scheduletoday. Highlighting the schedule will be 14 midweek nationally televised gamesduring the month of November on ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPN3 as the conference race unfoldsin both the East and West divisions.

An updated release of the MAC 2014 football schedule will be released later thisspring with kick times and a full television schedule.

The regular season will conclude with the 17th Marathon MAC Football Championshipgame on Friday, Dec. 5 at Ford Field in Detroit on ESPN2. This will mark the 11thMarathon MAC Football Championship game at Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions,Super Bowl XL, and the 2009 NCAA Men's Final Four.

For the seventh year in a row, league schools will face a formidable non-conferenceslate of opponents from the following Football Bowl Subdivision conferences - ACC,Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC. In addition, the conference will also faceopponents from the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Mountain WestConference, Sun Belt Conference and Independent Army.

MAC programs will face six non-conference foes that finished in the final AP Top 25poll: Michigan State (3), Missouri (5), Ohio State (12), Baylor (13), Wisconsin (22)and Vanderbilt (24). Two of these six games will be home games for MAC programs -Missouri at Toledo (Sept. 6) and Baylor at Buffalo (Sept. 12).

The MAC will also face opponents from the American Athletic Conference (2-Cincinnati (2)), Mountain West (1-UNLV), Conference USA (4-Marshall (3), WesternKentucky) and Sun Belt Conference (3-Idaho (2), South Alabama), along withIndependent Army (3).

MAC programs continue to increase the number of home or neutral site games againstFBS Automatic Qualifying (AQ) Conference opponents. This season the MAC will host11 games against FBS non-conference foes, including Baylor (Big-12), Boston College(ACC); Colorado (Pac-12), Indiana (Big Ten), Missouri (SEC) and Syracuse (ACC).

MAC Home Games vs. FBS Non-Conference opponents:-Boston College (ACC) at UMass on Aug. 30;-Marshall (Conference USA) at Miami on Aug. 30;-Missouri (SEC) at Toledo on Sept. 6;-Colorado (PAC-12) at UMass on Sept. 6;-South Alabama (Sun Belt) at Kent State on Sept. 6;-Baylor (Big-12) at Buffalo on Sept. 12;-Syracuse (ACC) at Central Michigan on Sept. 13;-Indiana (Big Ten) at Bowling Green on Sept. 13;-Idaho (Sun Belt) at Ohio on Sept. 20;-Marshall (Conference USA at Akron on Sept. 20;-Army (Independent) at Kent State on Oct. 18;